An Episcopal priest blogs, mostly for the purpose to keeping a sort-of training journal. Bikes, triathlons, more bikes, and maybe the occasional cat picture.
Personal mantra: "Never make decisions while going up a hill."

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Man, it's cold out there!

It's winter in Eugene. Which means rain, and not just rain, but an intermittent, cold, damp sort of rain. It's the sort of rain that you cannot allow to keep you inside, otherwise you'd be inside from pretty much October until May.

Liquid Sunshine.

The bad part of a cold rain: it's cold. I hate being cold. And it's hard to find a right-weight sweater. Cashmere can be too hot. Knit can be too cold. True story: when we first moved here, I realized that my heavy cashmere was too warm for most of the time, and my three quarter length sleeve cardigans were too cold. So I went to the store and bought a few new sweaters to keep me alive. I got home, and discovered a huge stain on one of them. I asked my beloved M to go exchange the sweater for me, but when he got to the store, they had no more of that particular sweater in my size.

So he returned it for cash, bought a special bottle of wine, and made me dinner.

It's probably the sweetest way to freeze your wife to death, ever.

We are racing the Holiday Half 10K in December. It's another one of those "everyone at St. Mary's runs!" races. The Boss is running the Holiday Half, and I signed me and M up for the 10K version. Are you running any of the distances?

My goal is to keep my time under 1 hour for the 10K, and to beat a 30 minute split on my 5Ks. My stretch goal? 55 minutes. I've been hovering at that 5K-30 minute mark for a while now (which is typical when you live in the hills and every run ends with a giant hill climb), but I've found that on flats, I can hold a decent 8:02 mile. Considering that three years ago, a fast mile for me was 10:30, I'm stoked. So I'm following a plan that I got out of the British edition of Runner's World to beat a 30 minute 5K. I wanna see if I can get faster this season!

Today I headed out for a 3-4 mile tempo run- that means you just run at a good pace- not too easy, not too hard- whatever you can hold steady for 3-4 miles. It was darkening and cool when I headed out. I wore my highlighter-yellow jacket and my firefly ankle straps from Road ID- I could actually see my ankles glittering in the light as I took steps! those things are REALLY visible! I never run without my Road ID, and for the first time, I noticed the stitches on that are reflective as well! Cool!

As I rounded one loop of the run, it started to sprinkle. Within a few minutes, it was coming down hard enough that I could feel it through my jacket. I decided to head for home and got to my door at exactly three miles, soaked and chilly!

Three bowls of soup, a hot shower, a fluffy sweater, a pair of fresh warm socks, and sitting-in-front-of-the-roaring-fire later, I am finally warm getting warm again.

About Me

Episcopal priest and Emergency chaplain. Starting doing triathlons to rehab after a bike crash. Bikes remain first great love. Works for God. Wants to cure PTSD one day. Specializes in trauma and drama... What's not to like?